Nike Community Impact Fund Ready to Help Local Nonprofits

Nike Paralympian Gold Medalist and rugby wheelchair athlete Will Groulx with grant recipient representatives Andre Ashley, Sports Management Supervisor, Portland Parks & Recreation and Kaig Lightner, Director of Coaching, Portland Community Football Club. Grant: To launch the Portland Community Football Club, a community-based soccer club emphasizing the principles of equal access to sport and diversity, and providing affordable, high-quality soccer for Portland youth.

Portland, OR. Do you know of a school or nonprofit (in Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, Yamhill or Columbia counties in Oregon, or in Clark County, Washington) in need of funds? Be sure to share this information about a grant application for the Nike Community Impact Fund. Many local nonprofits have benefited including a group, posing with Nike Paralympian Gold Medalist Will Groulx, working to provide soccer for all Portland youth.

Grants are one-year awards of $5,000 to $20,000. Eighty percent of the grants support projects that deliver impact through the lens of sport and physical activity, while the remaining 20 percent support organizations and projects that address community challenges through innovative solutions.

Since 2010, the Nike Community Impact Fund (NCIF) has been administered from Nike World Headquarters by a committee of employee volunteers that has awarded 300 cash grants totaling more than $3.2 million dollars to local programs that promote sports and physical activity for youth and address pressing community needs. Through this fund, Nike employees award at least $550,000 per year to nonprofits and schools in the Metropolitan Portland region and in Southwest Washington.

Grant applications are due June 1st. Click here for a link with all the details.

The Spring 2013 Nike Employee Grant Fund recipients.

In 2016, NCIF expanded from an Oregon-focused program to include the backyards of all Nike Community Stores in the U.S. These additional stores include: East Los Angeles, South Chicago, downtown Detroit, New Orleans, Washington DC’s Ivy City neighborhood and Flatbush, Brooklyn. Each of these Nike Community Stores will offer $40,000 in annual grants, of $5,000 each, to eight local non-profit groups that make physical activity, play and sport a highly valued part of everyday life.

As part of the program’s expansion, NCIF will engage a committee of employee volunteers from each of the local communities where grants will be awarded. During this fiscal year’s granting cycle, Nike employees will help award nearly $800,000 in grants to nonprofit organizations and schools across communities in the U.S.

Nike believes in the power of sport to change the world. We know that sport is inspiring and unifying, and creates opportunities for individuals and communities to realize their full potential.

You’ll find the online grant application here.

Elisa Klein

I’ve been a professional journalist and writer since 1987, (and long-time reporter for KOIN-TV.) As a nationally published reporter, with a Master’s Degree in Journalism, I love to report positive news and information. Journalism has also connected me with another non-profit where I served as a leader; the Northwest’s biggest writer’s organization: The Willamette Writers.